GuanoLad I have a suggestion. The next election you are involved in try and put together a short list of questions to ask each candidate. Then contact the candidates by email or snail mail and aske them to answer the questions. Be sure to mention that you are going to ask the other candidates the same questions and that you will be telling people about the answers. Then of course, you have to ask the other candidates and tell as many people as you can about the results. Its not something you have to spend days of time doing.
Now, certainly, if they answer at all, they will simply fob the questions off to a staff member. Probably a lower level staff member. But if many of us start doing this, candidates will start posting FAQs. They may even begin to take such questionaires more seriously. If we start with local candidates first, we may even be able to start a trend.
plnnr is right and if I may add IMHO people that are qualified for a public office usually have a better job. I would much rather be CEO of Ford Motor Company, for instance, than President of the United States.
RickJay, thanks for the explanation from your own experience. That makes a lot of sense, and pretty much answers my question.
Except I have seen Politicians talk about their portfolios as spokepeople, and it often seems to me that they don’t really understand it, and they can’t answer questions on the fly very thoroughly, because their true interests don’t lay with that portfolio, they are - as you have now explained - just a face.
I think for that reason alone, people qualified in the field would put on a better front, and inspire more confidence in us that they were doing a good job. A Dentist would at least understand Health, and what its priorities should be, better than an Accountant would (Except for its accounting-related priorities, I suppose).
And plnnr, I think you’ve probably hit the nail on the head about the real truth to it.
The people who “run” this country are all in administrative positions and they have the skills needed to fulfill their duty. At some point you need someone to tell all those peons what to do. Sure you have experts (biased or not) who lay down the facts, but the administration has to determine a stance based on the facts.
Plus, it takes a lot to become an “expert” and people usually devote their lives to any one field. To be knowledgable about everything is impossible but most Presidents do have some idea of whats going on. Many Presidents have been lawyers, economists, historians, etc. and that trains them for their position. Being able to deal with foreign heads of state, Congress, the media, and the public is far harder than it looks on paper, and quite frankly takes a lot of skill. Top level officials tend to leave the gritty details to their advisers while they deal with public appearance.
Lower down in the heirarchy, you don’t really need to know much. What smaller officials do is much more procedural than anything else. Just direct your local group of grunts to do what your higher ups command. Its not likely that you’d be setting policy but rather executing orders given to you.
plnnr is correct for the majority of cases but there have been exceptions. Below is a short list off the top of my head where people have left or paused succesful careers in favor of an office.
[ul]
[li]Ronald Reagan - actor turned governor of California then President[/li][li]Woodrow Wilson - noted historian turned President[/li][li]Arnold Schwarzenegger - actor turned governor of California[/li][li]Jesse Ventura - wrestler turned governor of Minnesota[/li][li]Mike Bloomberg - billionaire CEO turned mayor of New York City[/li][/ul]
Looking at my short list, its interesting to note that they were either formally or informally very educated socially in terms of dealing with people- a crucial skill for an elected government official.
That’s true of virtually ALL successful politicians. Politicians who’re successful are almost invariably extremely talanted at dealing with people. That’s their job. I cannot begin to list the number of people I’ve known who met a political leader who they were politically opposed to who came away amazed at how charming the politician was. I’ve read more than a few people who reported on the Bush-Gore race who wrote that they couldn’t believe how different Bush and Gore were in person - remarkably charming.
George Bush 2.0 was governor of Texas; Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas; George Bush 1.0 was vice president and held other very high government posts, such as CIA director; Ronald Reagan was governor of California and at one point had been President of SAG; Jimmy Carter was governor of California; Richard Nixon served in Congress for many years. Presidents, to use that office as an example, aren’t just people who suddenly decide to become President, they’re people who are really, really good at dealing with other people.